Let me begin by making the following statement, so there can be no confusion:

I like Mark Sweeney. The few occasions that I’ve met him, he was personable and pleasant. He seems to be a really nice guy to everyone he meets, no matter what.

Now, having gotten that out of the way, Fox Sports San Diego needs to stop putting Sweeney in the play-by-play booth. Like, immediately and forever.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Sweeney does a halfway decent job as a studio analyst. He should keep doing that.

However, when he shows up for those three innings during home games as the third wheel in the booth between Don Orsillo and Mark Grant, the life gets sucked right out of the broadcast. Whenever he’s in the broadcast booth, I find myself tuning out of the action of the game and doing other things while the TV stays on as background noise. When he subs for Mud on occasion, I find myself wishing that there wasn’t a delay between the radio and TV feeds.

Now that Dick Enberg and his Dickisms have retired from everyday play-by-play life, Sweeney has taken up the mantle of driving some Friars’ fans to drink.

The Padres wrap up the season with three games at Chase Field against the Arizona Diamondbacks (66-93). Edwin Jackson (5-6, 5.77) gets the start tonight at 6:40pm PDT against Braden Shipley (4-5. 5.26).

“There it goes … deep fly ball, way back in left field … aaaaand it falls harmlessly into the waiting glove of Scott Hairston on the edge of the warning path, and the Padres escape further damage.”

Perhaps you’ve heard that call — or one like it — from Dick Enberg, who has been announcing Padres games for the past five years. Enberg will call 60 or so games next year, then give way to Don Orsillo and call it a career. It’s been a brilliant run, mind you, but his late-career send-off in San Diego has come with mixed reviews. Sure, he’s still got that good, big game voice, and he calls a fine game for the most part, but the strange quirks — the warning paths, the hubba-hubbas (oh my, the hubba-hubbas), the occasional mispronounced name — seem to annoy more than they endear. I’d argue Enberg has actually improved a great deal throughout his gig with the Padres, particularly in his on-air chemistry with partner Mark Grant, a major credit to a man who has been in broadcasting for nearly 60 years. Forget that, though, we’re here for one reason.

On the surface, the Padres’ hiring of now former Red Sox announcer Don Orsillo, a move San Diego made official last Wednesday, looks like a Mike Dee-led familiarity play. In fact, it probably is. Dee worked for the Red Sox from 2002 through 2009, mostly as COO, and Orsillo was Boston’s lead play-by-play guy — teaming in the booth with Jerry Remy — since 2001. It’s hard to imagine Dee’s familiarity with Orsillo didn’t have something to do with the hiring.

Maybe that’s unfortunate. Maybe Jesse Agler, who will be transitioning to the radio side from his all-around role this year, was the right person for the job. Maybe someone else — some relative unknown — should have gotten the nod, helping the Padres build a true identity of their own. If there’s any criticism of the deal — and there is some, mind you — it’s that Orsillo represents Boston, and, well, this ain’t Boston.

It’s true, mostly. Orsillo, 46, was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, a (Vladimir Guerrero) stone’s throw from Boston, and he grew up in New England, although he did graduate from high school in California. He returned east for college, though, and interned with the Red Sox while attending Northeastern. Further, nearly his entire announcing career comes from within the Red Sox organization (I’m Wikipedia-ing here) — the internship, five years calling Pawtucket Red Sox games on the radio from 1996-2000, and, of course, the lead role at NESN for the past 15 years.

Examining Potential MLB Expansion Cities, Part 1 (Hardball Times) – Chris Mitchell wonders where MLB might expand next should it choose to do so. Part 1 sets up the framework for his discussion, while Part 2 has names of actual cities. Many of the usual suspects appear (including Portland, one of my favorite non-San Diego places in the world), although some curiosities also make the list (Riverside?). Good food for thought here.

Nieves’ heroics key Padres’ victory (San Diego Union-Tribune) – This might end up being one 2015’s coolest stories. At age 37, some 13 years after first reaching the big leagues, Padres backup catcher Wil Nieves launched a grand slam against Jake Peavy at Petco Park. It was the first grand slam of Nieves’ career, and it came off the guy he caught in his debut just down the road at Qualcomm Stadium (Peavy notched the win in that one, with Hoffman getting the save). Not bad for a former 47th-round pick taken 1,284 slots after the more heralded Ben Davis in a miserable 1995 draft.

Here it is! All of the Padres bobbleheads that I own, in one single post! 57 168 (!!!!) different Padres, Chihuahuas, Beavers, Stars, BayBears, Quakes, Storm, Wizards, TinCaps, Emeralds, managers, announcers, mascots, dreamboats, skaters and sleepy voiced ex-owners. I’ve written in depth about many of these already, so if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll fill you in on them.

Some Additional Notes:

-The Tony Gwynn set of 5 was not a Padres affiliated giveaway and was reportedly a set that Alicia Gwynn teamed up with another company on. I can’t recall the year, or if they were given away somewhere or sold, but I’m about 99.9% sure that it was in 2001.

-I found out that the set that features Trevor Hoffman, Ryan Klesko, Mark Kotsay and Phil Nevin was indeed given away at a game on August 4th, 2002, but was for kids only. You could also go to Carl’s Jr. every Saturday for 5 consecutive weeks and purchase a combo meal to buy a different bobblehead for $4.99 though, which is what I did. My cholesterol levels have never been the same.

-The Jerry Coleman bobblehead was a San Diego National Bank item from 2001 and was given away to “special friends of the bank” only.

-I’ve never seen the 1980’s Twin Enterprises bobblehead before, but I scooped it up. It’s in the 1985-1990 uniform, however I have never seen any of these holding a baseball. Perhaps it was a custom one?

If you have any bobbleheads that aren’t listed here, that you’d like to contribute to my sickness the cause, then shoot me an e-mail.